# Sanctioned ICC President Warns of the Demise of International Rule of Law

International Criminal Court (ICC) President Tomoko Akane said she was not surprised by the American measures, while Tokyo has neither protested nor commented on sanctions against one of its own nationals.

- Published: 2026-08-22T05:09:40.954Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-08-22/sanctioned-icc-president-warns-of-the-demise-of-internationa
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: geopolitics
- Sources: [The Japan Times](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/22/japan/politics/icc-international-rule-of-law/), [The Japan Times](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/22/japan/politics/takaichi-weak-responses-us-russia/)

Tomoko Akane, the Japanese jurist who presides over the International Criminal Court (ICC), spoke publicly for the first time since the United States imposed sanctions on her, saying she was ["not surprised" by the move](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/22/japan/politics/icc-international-rule-of-law/) and warning against what she called the demise of the international rule of law.

Japan's response has drawn domestic criticism. The Japan Times reports that the government of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi [neither criticized nor lodged a protest over the American sanctions](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/22/japan/politics/takaichi-weak-responses-us-russia/) against a Japanese national serving as president of a court Japan helped build and funds. The same report notes Tokyo also took no measures after the Russian leader visited an island Japan claims.

The two silences share a common cause. Japan depends on the American security guarantee and is negotiating trade and defence questions with Washington, and it depends on stable management of its dispute with Moscow. Each protest carries a cost the government has chosen not to pay.

The ICC is a treaty institution whose authority rests entirely on member states enforcing its decisions. When a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council sanctions its president and the court's own member states decline to object, the institution's practical reach narrows regardless of what its statute says.

## What this means

Multilateral legal institutions are part of the infrastructure that makes cross-border contracts, sanctions regimes and asset seizures predictable. When their authority is contested by the states that fund them, the cost of enforcing claims across jurisdictions rises, and investors in sovereign debt, expropriated assets and cross-border joint ventures lose a channel of recourse. Japan's silence signals that middle powers will subordinate treaty commitments to bilateral security dependence, which makes the outcome a matter of alliance calculations rather than law.

## What to watch

- Whether any European Union member state applies its blocking statute to shield the ICC from the American sanctions, which would show the court retains state-level enforcement.
- Whether the court's member states continue paying assessed contributions in full, the practical measure of institutional support.
- Japan's handling of the next dispute with Washington, since a second silence would establish a pattern rather than a single calculation.